Monday, 3 June 2013

Leave your phone at home

Remember when there was only one computer at home and you had to sacrifice the telephone to use it? Remember when you rang people from your home phone, arranged to meet them, and just had to be patient when they were late? My cousins wont, they were born into the age of technology, they grew up with mobile phones for toys, and they never experienced that awful dial up noise of the internet getting warmed up. But you remember it right?

Nowadays having no tablet makes you behind the times, having no computer makes people question how you continue your day to day life, and having no mobile makes people question your sanity.

I'm sat here with my iPad in lap, phone in pocket, and mac by my side, exasperating at how over faced with technology I am. It's madness to think that fourteen years ago I would have had none of the above. In fact I would have to wait a whole year until I would be presented with my first, extendable aerial, giant plastic button, kilogram brick of a phone. That trusty Motorola hunk would bulge through my school blazer pocket, awkward and indiscreet, but I loved it! And it seems my love affair with technology has continued to develop. When I first got my iPad i took it everywhere; to the shops, the gym, the bathroom (true separation anxiety). My sister's suggestion to leave it in the car when we went shopping made me physically sick. This is how I know I'll be a hideously protective mother (I apologise in advance to my future childminders and yet to be conceived children).

So upon highlighting the difference, I began to wonder, is this surge of technology good or bad? We can now video call family and friends on the other side of the world, share photos, articles and videos at the click of a button, we can even promote ourselves to stardom uploading videos to Youtube. Of course technology is incredible, but it also makes us distracted and dependable. This was exemplified perfectly yesterday when I failed to navigate my way to a nearby village because my Google maps lost signal, despite having the road signs right in front of me. I noticed how our phones and gadgets have us staring at screens instead of observing the world around us.

When did my notepad become an app rather than a pad of paper? When did a tablet stop being a paracetamol? When did apple and blackberry become more associated with phones than pies? The world is changing so quickly it's hard to keep up, just remember to look up from your screens every now and then and take a look at the world we constantly instagram (It's pretty amazing even without Brannan and Valencia settings)! Enjoy the thrill of technology, but every now and then have a break from candy crush and go take a walk outside, and leave your phone at home.